U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that additional countries have recently approached him about joining the Abraham Accords, the series of normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab states brokered during his rule.
“We have some really great countries in there right now, and I think we're going to start loading them up,” Trump told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo. He added that he had once believed Iran might also join the accords, describing the country as “the primary problem” which “would have been better off than where they are right now.”
Trump says approached by countries asking to join Abraham Accords; thought Iran might want to as well
(Video: Fox News)
Asked whether Syria could normalize relations with Israel, Trump replied, “I don't know, but I did take off the sanctions at the request of some of the other countries in the area that are friends of ours. I took off the sanctions on Syria to give them a chance [because] the sanctions are biting. They're very strong. And we have sanctions on Iran too... You get more sometimes with honey than you do with vinegar.”
Addressing the U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, Trump said the Iranian regime was “weeks” away from obtaining a nuclear weapon, prompting him to approve military action. He revealed that one of the three Iranian targets was considered “impenetrable” and located 30 stories beneath granite. Trump said the conflict inflicted damage on Iran, Israel and American allies but temporarily halted Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Trump claimed the strikes were successful, dismissing media skepticism as “fake news.” He also praised the pilots involved, saying they flew for 36 hours and hit a refrigerator-door-sized target from 50,000 feet at high speed.
Asked whether Iran had managed to hide uranium before the strike, Trump denied the possibility, saying the material was too dangerous, heavy and difficult to move, and that the regime had little advance warning.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed he had saved Khamenei from a "VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH" by opposing Israeli plans of assassinating him.
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“I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life... And he does not have to say, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!’”
US President Donald Trump addresses strike in Iran after White House statement
(Video: The White House)
Trump added that he had been working on easing sanctions on Iran but halted the effort after Khamenei’s defiant remarks. “During the last few days, I was working on the possible removal of sanctions, and other things, which would have given a much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery - The sanctions are BITING! But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more,” he wrote.
Last Wednesday, Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said, “We think we're going to have some pretty big announcements on countries that are now coming into the Abraham Peace Accords.” An Israeli source told Ynet that it was unclear which countries he was referring to and that there were no known developments.
However, Trump’s unusual post later that day — in which he called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s graft trial to be canceled or for him to receive a pardon — appeared to some as a coordinated move tied to a broader plan involving the expansion of the accords.